Lightningstar was padding towards the entrance to camp to go hunting when she was stopped by Cherryfrost and Frostpaw.
"Lightningstar, I would like Frostpaw to become a full medicine cat," Cherryfrost said calmly, wrapping her tail around her paws.
"But he has only been training for four moons!"Warrior training usually took around six moons, but medicine cat apprenticeship lasted much longer.
"It's actually been six! He's ready now!" Cherryfrost hissed, the fur on her tail beginning to bristle, as Frostpaw looked fearfully towards the medicine cat. Lightningstar thought of her 8th life. Biarstem, the RainClan medicine cat at the time had given her a life for faith in her medicine cat.
"Very well. If he has anything else to learn I'm sure you'll teach him before the next half moon." Lightningstar said, shuffling her paws.
"It would be impossible to teach him to clean the elder's bedding correctly by tonight, but other than that he is completely ready to become a medicine cat!" Cherryfrost snapped as if she thought Lightningstar was doubting her decision.
"Tonight!?" Lightningstar hated being so forgetful. She forgot the simplest things. From apprentice ceremonies to the time, she forgot everything at least once.
"Didn't you notice the moon?" Frostpaw asked, tilting his head slightly to the side.
"Oh, um...I just was so busy I didn't notice!" Lightningstar said quickly, looking around frantically for something to distract herself from her mistake. "Pebblelight! Wanna go hunting?"
The brown tabby looked up and padded happily towards Lightningstar. They left quickly, leaving Frostpaw with a confused expression on his face.
"So where should we hunt?" Pebblelight asked after they had walked a few tail-lengths from the camp.
"How about in the Star Field?" Lightningstar put on a burst of speed and made a running leap over a fallen tree. Pebblelight stood frozen for a moment before running to catch up with her, swerving around the tree.
Lightningstar felt soft grass beneath her paws and she blinked as she suddenly emerged into a sunlit clearing. She took a small jump and skidded to a halt at the top of a large stone that overlooked the vast field in front of her. As Pebblelight jumped up beside her she spotted a vole shuffling through the grass below her.
Before Pebblelight could say anything LIghtningstar pounced onto the small vole, missing the creature's spine as she tried to kill it. She quickly fixed her mistake and looked up at Pebblelight, her muzzle splattered slightly with vole blood.
"I always was a sloppy hunter," Lightningstar remarked as Pebblelight helped her bury the freshkill.
"You aren't that bad..." Pebblelight said, opening his mouth to scent the air. They continued to hunt until the warriors of StarClan started to appear in the sky. The Sky Field had a wonderful view of Silverpelt, and Pebblelight and Lightningstar sat down to admire the stars. They stared silently up for a moment, enjoying the spectacular sight above them.
"Which one do you think is Sunpaw?" Lightningstar mewed, searching the sky for her only brother.
"That one." Pebblelight laughed, pointing with his tail to one of the more dim stars as he stretched. Lightningstar laughed and turned her gaze back to Pebblelight as she heard a loud splash.
Pebblelight had tripped and fallen into a puddle, splattering his brown tabby pelt with mud.
"That's what you get for messing with my brother!" Lightningstar meowed, her voice shaking with laughter. Pebblelight shook out his fur, then pushed Lightningstar down into the puddle.
"Hey!"
"You were laughing, too!"
Lightningstar frowned at him, then broke into a smile. Lightningstar and Pebblelight moved a few paces away from the mud puddle, then gazed into each other's eyes. The two pairs of green and yellow eyes showed what they had never felt for any other cat.
"Lightningstar...um...well," Pebblilight studdered, looking down at his paws. Lightningstar clung to every word, hoping for only one thing. "Will you be my mate?"
Lightningstar couldn't speak for a moment. Her mind was going crazy and she was the happiest she'd ever been.
"Um...of course!" Lightningstar buried her muzzle in his neck fur, and Pebblelight licked her lovingly on the cheek.
* * *
Lightningstar and Pebblelight walked into camp, surprised to find it still full of cats even though it was long after moonhigh. Bluefeather walked up to them, a relieved look in her eyes.
"There you are! We've been looking for you since sunhigh! Where were you?" Bluefeather mewed, a small group of cats gathering around her.
"We were hunting," Lightningstar said as Pebblelight walked out of camp and returned with a few pieces of prey shortly after. "Have Cherryfrost and Frostpaw returned from the moonstone?"
Bluefeather nodded and Lightningstar padded into the medicine cat den. Frostpaw was in the center of the large den, sorting bundles of sweet-smelling herbs. Cherryfrost was nowhere to be seen.
"Are you a full medicine cat?" Lightningstar asked Frostpaw as he looked up at her.
"Yup! I'm Frostfeather now!" The small white and gray tom mewed, bouncing around happily in a small circle until he came to an abrupt stop and shuffled his paws. "Um...at the moonstone...I had a vision."
Lightningstar sat down to listen to Frostfeather, hoping his vision would help clarify some things about Icestar's accusations against PondClan.
"I was in StarClan's hunting grounds as usual, but no one was there. Usually, I meet with Snowstreak, the first RainClan medicine cat, but she wasn't there. So I just wandered around, waiting for StarClan to appear to me. A bunch of cats suddenly came towards me, but they were made of plants! They ran past a huge rock and it crushed them! It just fell over! Just like in Cherryfrost's vision!" Frostfeather explained, clearly confused about what he had seen.
"Hmm...It wouldn't make much sense for Icestar to assume that the vision was about PondClan, so Bluewing couldn't have seen the same thing..." Lightningstar mumbled to herself, leaving Frostfeather behind as she wandered into the main clearing. Most of the cats that had been looking for her and Pebblelight had gone to sleep by now since it was almost dawn.
She yawned and headed towards the leader's den before remembering that Silverstar and Petalshine hadn't been moved to the medicine den yet. She padded into the den to visit the injured cats, but she could only see the light brown pelt of Petalshine sleeping peacefully in a corner. The other nest was empty and the scent of Silverstar was faint. Cherryfrost padded up behind her and Lightningstar's eyes widened in horror as she glanced back at her.
Cherryfrost was covered in blood.
YOU ARE READING
Warriors: FlowerClan's War #1 - A Clan's Choice
Fanfiction**BOOK 1** On the other side of Highstones, three new clans have begun. StoneClan, RainClan, and PondClan have been peaceful for many moons. A new Clan has come to live with them, but their introduction isn't going as well as the cats had hoped. Can...
